Hi Guys, new to the forum and I have always really struggled to tune the congas to specific notes/intervals by ear or with a guitar tuner (as the needle/lights jump around and the sound is just too short for it to settle). However I recently found an Iphone/Android app that makes tuning congas really easy and I thought other people might find it useful too. It is called Drumtune Pro, and although it was designed for tuning drum kits it works fine with congas if you use the High Tension Snare Resonant Head setting. It works by taking a very short sample of the tone and then identifying the fundamental frequency. This makes it very easy to quickly tune each conga to the desired note/interval. If you are very fussy you can even lock the frequency and tune each lug individually to the same pitch (best done by pressing the end of a clave in the middle of the drum and dropping and bouncing the other one near the lug). This means for the first time in years I am able to tune the congas to my desired notes in a few minutes I prefer Quinto at middle C, the Conga at G below this and the Tumba at D below that (fifths). The app isn't free it costs £7.50 and there are some differences between the Iphone and Android versions - the Apple version has more features whilst the Android version has a higher frequency range (useful for tuning congas - but bongos are a little too high pitched - it works on the Hembra but not the Macho). I suspect the Tunebot clip on tuner would do a similar job but that costs about £80 currently. And for the more cynical amongst you - no I am not the developer of the app, and have no connection with them. This app has revolutionised my ability to tune the congas and I now play a lot more because it only takes a few minutes to tune them up when I used to have to wrestle with them for sometimes hours trying to get it right...

I haven't done that yet - as I said it won't read the macho correctly - however if you tap it twice quickly instead of once it does register but it detects a lower undertone around the same pitch as the hembra. In theory I would like to tune the bongos to either C and G two octaves above middle C - or at least to the G and D two octaves above middle C. So I would probably be able to tune the hembra with the app and then have to try to tune the macho by ear...